Social networking websites may be characterized as a category of websites which allow users to exchange information. Social networking websites also allow users to create online profiles and social networks. A social network may be defined by an individual as a list of other users expressing a personal or professional set of relationships between the individual and the others included in the list. Existing social networking websites define public social networks including those users from a particular geographic region, workplace, or school affiliation. The public social networks are accessible to all users of the website. Membership to these public social networks may be self declared by each user, such as based on information entered in a user profile. Membership to a particular public social network based on a self-declared affiliation may be verified such as by requiring a user declaring to work for a particular employer to supply an email address including a domain name related to the employer. Other membership may not be verified, such as a user indicating he/she resides in a particular city and state. The defined public social networks may be used collectively to discover indirect relationships between different users of the website. A first user may inquire how he/she is possibly connected to another second user. The social networking website may use the public social networks to provide the first user with information indicating how the first user is connected to the second user. For example, both the first and second users may have gone to the same school or may work for the same employer. Social networking sites also allow a user to define private social networks in which the list of users representing a private social network, such as a list of friends, may be viewable by the owner defining the list and members of the list. A user may also filter electronic content, such as blog entries, based on membership in a public or private social network.